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Abstract

Why study languages as a GCSE? Surely everyone speaks English anyway? The proportion of students studying languages at GCSE has over halved in the last two decades and is still following a downward trend. As a keen language learner, I was intrigued to delve into this topic to really understand where the source of England’s language learning crisis is. 

This research project investigates the decline of the uptake of GCSE modern foreign languages (MFL). The question posed in this project is, ‘to what extent are socio-economic factors the most influential contributors to the decline of the uptake of MFL GCSE?’ Secondary data was collected to answer this question and to consider the other potentially influential factors such as: the lack of motivation to learn languages in British society, the view that English is a global language and the poor transition that occurs between key stage 2 (KS2) and key stage 3 (KS3) and how that affects students’ language progress.

Overall, It was discovered that within the scope of this project it is not necessarily possible to pinpoint the exact cause of the decline on one specific factor however, it was believed that the lack of motivation towards language learning was a key element which is potentially caused by the lack of coherent teaching or progress tracking from KS2 to KS3. Additionally, the socio-economic factors were quite influential in the decline as the factor is multifaceted. It covers the impact that having more international experiences has predominantly in schools in more affluent areas in contrast to schools in more deprived areas. Furthermore, it was discovered that independent schools tend to be better staffed and have more international teaching assistants in their classrooms in comparison to state schools. This suggests that the quality of teaching received in schools in more affluent areas may be better, which could influence students' decision to continue MFL at GCSE level. The study concludes by providing potential solutions to tackle these problems and areas for further research.

Course: Applied Languages - BA (Hons) - C0392

Date Deposited: 2023-07-25

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14162.html